Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Puritan Backgrounds to the Churches of Christ

"To the eyes of the Puritan faithful, Scripture presented a dramatic panorama which moved from Creation to Redemption to Resurrection and Last Things, a panorama that sprang into present life in preaching, biblical study, and meditation." --T.D. Bozeman, To Live Ancient Lives: The Primitivist Dimension in Puritanism. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1988, p. 33.

Those who suspect that the Stone-Campbell Movement (a.k.a, the American Restoration Movement) goes back no further than Barton W. Stone and Thomas and Alexander Campbell really should read this book. Bozeman clearly reveals that from their start in the 1560s the Puritans were biblical primitivists with assumptions and specific language that anyone who grew up among the Churches of Christ knows very well.  When I read the foregoing words from Bozeman, I immediately thought of an elaborate biblical timeline I had seen before. It's painted on the wall in one of the children's Bible classrooms at the San Jacinto Church of Christ in Amarillo, Texas.  I snapped a few photos. Take a look:

From Creation to Final Consummation
and points along the way . . .






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